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Excel has defined the way so many manufacturers have done business for decades. The spreadsheet solution was one of the first tools that helped manufacturers move data from paper to digital. However, while Excel still has its uses, growing businesses who rely on this now outdated solution may find themselves working harder than necessary — without the results to match.
Configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions are the next phase in modernizing your quoting process to reduce errors, streamline sales, and empower your team. Configure One Cloud from Revalize is one such solution that provides your business with the tools it needs to scale to the next level. Let’s take a look at these two quoting options to see which is the right fit for your business and to better understand their unique benefits.
For many businesses, Excel offers an easily accessible quoting option that is a familiar standby for their team. Since Excel is such a commonly used tool, employee adoption is quick and straightforward — reducing potential resistance to learning.
Excel is also customizable, though it takes extensive training to understand its intricacies. Once employees understand how to use Excel, they can perform complex calculations and produce graphs or charts to help visualize these data sets.
However, the main reason why many companies use Excel over a more powerful solution is because of cost. Excel has low upfront costs, often bundled in with the Microsoft Suite that many companies already use. This makes it an appealing option for smaller companies looking to save while still using digital solutions.
For those looking for a modern quoting solution, Configure One Cloud offers a wide range of tools that are designed to streamline and scale business operations. This CPQ solution modernizes your sales process by providing guided-selling options, real-time quoting, and 3D visualization that lets users see their custom products as they build.
Configure One Cloud also helps your sales team reduce the effort required to produce each quote. Through centralized product and pricing rules, automated workflows, and system integrations, your team is connected throughout the entire quoting process. This interconnectedness reduces errors during configuration, ensures accurately quoted prices, and strips away the red tape of an outdated sales process.
Implied by its name, Configure One Cloud is also a cloud-based solution that reduces your team’s anxiety over lost data, untracked changes, and searching for past quotes.
Many businesses find it difficult to justify transfering from a low-cost solution like Excel to an investment in CPQ due to the sticker price. However, the key to understanding the value of CPQ over Excel is to look at its long-term benefits. Configure One Cloud is made to help businesses reach the next level, with tools centered around streamlining and scaling your quoting process.
While Excel may have its benefits, businesses looking for a solution that integrates with and improves their current processes should consider switching to CPQ. Configure One Cloud is also an industry-specific solution that provides dedicated resources for manufacturers, compared to a general solution like Excel.
